[Report 1961] / School Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council.

  • North Riding of Yorkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1961
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1961] / School Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/48 (page 10)
    General Physical Condition The following table records the proportions of school children medically inspected whose general condition and state of nutrition was considered to be “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory”. Year Number of Pupils Inspected A Good /o B Fair /o C Poor /o 1951 23,507 51.31 47.65 1.04 1952 24,059 54.66 43.32 1.02 1953 22,423 54.67 44.17 1.16 1954 23,723 56.70 42.59 .71 1955 24,173 58.33 41.14 .53 - satisfactory unsatisfactory 1956 20,341 — 99.19 .81 1957 26,202 — 99.56 .44 1958 21,309 — 99.45 .55 1959 24,108 — 99.54 .46 1960 23,621 — 99.48 .52 1961 22,560 — 99.64 .36 This table is again included in the report, although, as has repeatedly been pointed out in past reports, it is meaningless. No conclusions should be drawn from the figures whose only function is to act as a warning of the fallibility of the national totals for England and Wales. CLEANLINESS Cleanliness inspections are performed by the school nurses, and in 1961, 135,257 such examinations were made, 21,644 less than in 1960. Individual children found to be harbouring lice or nits or both numbered in all, 1,806, a decrease of 447 compared with 1960. The interpretation of these figures is not easy because, although more examinations result in the discovery of more infestation, the extra exam¬ inations do not necessarily produce a proportionate increase in observed infestation. Similarly, fewer examinations producing the same proport¬ ion of infestations would suggest a lower actual incidence in the school community. In 1961, the observed infestations decreased by 19% and the examinations by about 14%, as compared with 1960. This suggests that there has been a true fall in the level of the infestation rate in North Riding school children and that the favourable trend noted in the previous report has been continued. The observed infestation rate in the Riding in 1961 was in the region of 3% as against just over 4% in 1960. If comparisons are to be made with national figures, the number of inspections per child during the year should be borne in mind. There was no appreciable change in the number of schools in which no nits or lice were found, the figures for 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961 being 213, 175, 193, 202 and 201 respectively. The numbers of schools in which more than 20% of pupils were found to be infested were as follows: 10 in 1958, 12 in 1959, 15 in 1960 and 11 in 1961.